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'College GameDay' Off to Best Ratings Start in Show's History

The show is averaging 2.2 million viewers.

Kyle Koster

College GameDay is off to a great ratings start.
College GameDay is off to a great ratings start. / Courtesy ESPN

College GameDay is off to its best four-episode ratings start in the show's history, ESPN PR trumpeted on Tuesday afternoon. Another strong showing this past weekend in Norman previewing the Oklahoma-Tennessee matchup moved the average viewership to 2.2 million per Saturday, with an average of 2.9 million in the final hour.

GameDay started off the season in College Station for the Notre Dame-Texas A&M tilt, then went to Ann Arbor in advance of Texas' dismantling of Michigan. Week 3 saw the crew travel to Columbia, S.C., where LSU survived South Carolina.

Big games have helped draw excitement but it is pretty impressive that this Saturday morning staple is setting new records, especially considering that Big Noon Kickoff on FOX has established itself as an aggressive challenger.

There are plenty of weekends left in the college football weekend so it'll be interesting if ESPN can keep up this pace. For now, though, it's a reminder that GameDay remains an extremely strong product—perhaps stronger than ever in the attention economy.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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